Halo: Operation Wildfire
by Xbamex
Summary: The UNSC Infinity has been pursuing Jul 'Mdama's small fleet since the destruction of the Forerunner world Requiem. After weeks of tracking the small Storm Covenant fleet, they find the fleet taking refuge on an uncharted world that UNSC has not discovered yet. **Rated T for violence and profanity. Takes place after the events of Requiem. Fireteam Crimson is included with OC's.**
1. Uncharted

**I always wanted to make fanfic with both of these franchises! And now that I can focus on one story, I can give it my 100%. Hopefully it does turn out well written. In case you didn't know already, there are no known members of Fireteam Crimson, so I'm going to make up names and service tags to the characters in that fireteam. Anyways, enjoy the first chapter, and I know there isn't much to read. But read on after!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the alien/predator or the Halo franchise. I'm simply making a collision course with both universes.**

* * *

"Roland, are you sure Jul 'Mdama fled to this uncharted planet?" Captain Lasky questioned the USS Infinity's AI Roland. Roland popped out of the hologram in the center briefing table and pulled up a schematic of the uncharted planet.

"I'm absolutely positive. I wouldn't lie to you, sir," the AI mused and he crossed his arms in the hologram. Lasky rolled his eyes and studied the schematic. "If not for the efforts of Fireteam Castle, we wouldn't exactly know where to start looking."

Before the destruction of Requiem, Fireteam Switchback managed to attach a homing beacon on one of Jul 'Mdama's phantoms. Apparently Jul's fleet fled farther away from any charted solar system discovered by the United Nations Space Command and the Orbital Naval Intelligence.

"How many ships are in the fleet?" Lasky asked the AI as he leaned onto the briefing table.

Roland zoomed into the northern part of the planet and a few Covenant ships came up on the hologram. "Two CSS-class battlecruisers and three SDV-class heavy corvettes." He pointed at the smaller ships. "I trust that you noticed the strange position those corvettes are in."

The three corvettes were stationed on the ground and one of seemed to have sustained damage. The two cruisers were still airborne, one higher altitude than the other. The one closer to the ground has its plasma cannons aiming at the three corvettes.

Lasky rose a brow and rested his chin on his hand, still studying the corvettes. "What could of happened? Friendly fire isn't what I would expect from the Storm Covenant."

"I'm intercepting a transmission from the top cruiser," Roland announced and snapped his fingers. A radio wave schematic popped up and an elite's raspy voice started yelling though the wave. "Well this is interesting," the AI remarked shifting his stance on the hologram.

"You have that translated?" Lasky asked the AI.

"I'm an AI, of course I do, sir," the sassy AI sarcastically said. Lasky rolled his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

"The voice talking is Jul 'Mdama. Basically, he is sending out an order to the other cruiser to glass the corvettes." Lasky squinted his eyes and glanced at the landed corvettes.

"Something has to be going on. Can you-"

Roland rose an arm and pressed a figure on his right ear. "Hold on sir I have a transmission from the other cruiser." A different elite's voice started talking formally then suddenly plasma fire erupted through the message along with strange shrieks and death cries from the Covenant.

"Well that's interesting. I've never heard anything like that before. It has to be- wait! Sir, check this out!" Lasky glanced back at the the lower cruiser. The cruiser suddenly started falling to the surface and crashed to the ground. "Apparently the engines ignited. I can't say what exactly happened but something caused them to explode. Most likely a plasma grenade."

"It must be friendly fire in that case. What's the status of Jul 'Mdama's cruiser?" Lasky questioned the AI.

"It looks like the energy levels throughout the entire ship are drastically low. The slip space module is not operational. Seems like they just ran outta juice." The cruiser started departing south from the location of the crashes.

"Where are they going?"

"To a safe distance. Apparently there is something important that was on the cruiser that just crashed. Otherwise, Jul would of just left the planet all together."

Lasky got up from the table and folded his arms. "Alright. Looks like this is the best time to take out that hinge face and rescue Halsey." He glanced at the fallen ships and nodded. "Contact Fireteams Crimson and Majestic. Tell them to come to the bridge ASAP. I'm going to brief them on Operation Wildfire."

"Will do, sir." Roland saluted the captain and disappeared from the hologram.

"Captain Lasky, something going on?" A woman's voice came from behind him. He slightly turned around and looked at the approaching person.

"Commander Palmer. Yes, there is something going on."

The female spartan IV walked up to the briefing table and looked at the ships. "What planet is this?" She asked and looked back up at the captain.

"It's an uncharted planet so there is no name."

The spartan rose an eyebrow. "How far out are we?"

Lasky smirked and looked back at the hologram. "Pretty far out. Jul's ship is just fleeing aimlessly. We've been tracking him for the past two weeks."

The spartan looked at the ships for a long time and looked back at the captain. "What's going on here?"

"I'll tell you as soon as Crimson and Majestic get here." The captain walked around the table and rested his hands on the top. "I'm pulling the plug on Operation Wildfire."

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**I know I know, it's a short chapter! Sorry, but it does set the stakes for the story. Now, its time to get started on the next chapter. Please review what you think so far! :)**


	2. Commence Wildfire

**Well, here's chapter 2. Just to let you know, Crimson Team will be built in OC's. Nothing much to say so read on!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything **

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"Fireteam Majestic. It's your old buddy Roland." The AI waved sarcastically at the five Spartans then put his hands behind his back.

"Roland, is there something you need?" DeMarco asked the AI as he slipped a pipe cleaner down the barrel of his BR85.

"The captain ordered me to fetch you fellas. He needs ya at the bridge ASAP." The AI glanced at the five Spartans.

Spartan Thorne looked up from his hologram device. "What's the problem?"

Roland smiled and crossed his arms. "Oh no problem at all. We just tracked Jul 'Mdama to an uncharted planet deep in space. I'll tell you more about later. Now, bridge, ASAP." The AI disappeared from the hologram leaving Fireteam Majestic looking at each other awkwardly.

DeMarco broke the silence. "Alright guys. We shouldn't keep the captain waiting," he said as he placed his BR on a table.

Hoya glanced at his commanding officer, smiling. "Are you gonna try to _impress_ the commander again, DeMarco?"

DeMarco rolled his eyes and grabbed his helmet. He gave Hoya an ugly look and walked out the room. Hoya and Madsen bumped fists, grabbed their helmets and walked out the room.

"Guys," Grant gasped as she picked up her helmet.

Thorne ignored the entire joke and turned off the device with the picture of New Phoenix. Even after awhile of being in combat, he still mourned for his family. He grabbed his Recruit helmet and left the room with Grant.

* * *

Captain Lasky noticed Majestic walking in the bridge and he stood up. Palmer noticed as well and stood up after the captain. "Fireteam Majestic. Good to see you all again." DeMarco and the rest of his squad saluted the captain. The captain rose a hand. "At ease Spartans." The Spartans lowered their arms and walked around the hologram briefing table.

"So sir, what's the situation?" DeMarco asked as he rested his hands onto the table studying the holographic planet.

"We found Jul, but before I go into details, we have to wait for Crimson to arrive." Majestic glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. The two fireteams have been trying to prove their skill at Requiem. Needless to say, Crimson has the score in their favor.

Suddenly the door slid opened up and four tall Spartans walked into the room. The C.O. of Crimson, Eric, Service Tag E-015 lead the Fireteam in the room.

Eric was one of the last surviving Spartan III's from Reach and always kept his trusty M739 SAW close. He has brown hair, blue eyes, and his height is 6'11 with his armor on. His armor is the HAZOP variant, but always preferred wearing an Pathfinder variant helmet. The camouflage on his armor is mostly blue with orange. He was known for his efforts during the fall of Reach. With the fall of Reach, at the time, he was one of the Spartan III's that escaped to Onyx with Dr. Halsey. After being rescued by the UNSC Port Stanley, he returned to Earth and was later offered a position in the Spartan IV program, to which he accepted without any hesitation. He believes that the UNSC is his home.

Crimson's sharpshooter, Dylan, a Spartan IV with service tag A-016, was on Eric's right. He has blonde hair and is nearly the same height as Eric. He is known to be one of the best sharpshooters on the Infinity. He was the one that dispatched Parg Vol effortlessly with his 14.5mm Anti-Tank SRS99D. His armor is a full set of the Venator variant with blue and gold. Some Spartans, including Eric, believe that his abilities can be comparable to Spartan-058 Linda's skill. However, he believes that no one can outmatch that Spartan's talent for marksmanship.

On Eric's left, Spartan IV D-216, Daniel, but preferred Danny, is clearly the tallest of the four. His height is 7'1 with his armor on. He prefers a BR85 at his disposal and is exceptionally skilled with it. He also has blonde hair and blue eyes. His armor is the Pioneer variant with the color white and red. He was also known for taking on seven elites at hand-to-hand combat with only his combat knife. Needless to say, those elites never saw another day.

Beside Danny, Spartan IV J-160, Jon, was the shortest of the four at 6'7 with his armor on. He is the heavy arms specialist and always carries a M45D Tactical Shotgun. His armor is a full set of the Defender variant with the color blue and white. He was the one that understood how to detach the power core from the Liche at Apex as well as reinstate it to the Harvester in order to deactivate the gravity pull from Requiem to Infinity.

"Fireteam Crimson. Nice of you guys to join us," the captain greeted them. Eric nodded a greeting and walked to the briefing table.

"So what's the deal?" He asked as he crossed his arms. DeMarco rolled his eyes and glanced at Madsen who was evil eying Dylan. Ever since training and in the war games, the two sharpshooters had this intense rivalry. Each Spartan showed their natural talent with high powered long ranged rifles, but at this point, they both try to embarrass each other in front of the other Spartans. However, Dylan was always better at embarrassing his fellow Spartan.

"As you know already, we tracked Jul 'Mdama's fleet to an uncharted planet. The terrain is lush and similar to Requiem's. Anyways, there has been some confusion and friendly fire among the ships. Three downed corvettes and one downed cruiser. Jul's ship is alone and his heading to safe location on the planet. However, we believe that there is something that was on the fallen cruiser. Something valuable, maybe even Dr. Halsey herself."

Roland popped up from the hologram. "I'll take from here, captain." He cleared his throat and put his hands behind his back. "Basically, what we are trying to get at Spartans is that you are going to commence Operation Wildfire."

DeMarco rose a brow and rubbed his chin. "What are the details on the op?"

"Yes yes," the AI started. "You two," he pointed at DeMarco and Eric, "are going to split up. Crimson is going to go scavenge the downed cruiser," Eric nodded, "and you fellas are going to go hunting for Jul 'Mdama."

Danny smirked sarcastically and placed his helmet on the table. "What, we're going to dig through a pile of metal for this _valuable_ item?"

Palmer pointed a finger at the taller Spartan. "We'll tell you once we know. Miller is on it right now, monitoring the Covenant's chatter. He'll voice in and give you the details when he finds out, understood?"

Dylan snorted and looked at the taller Spartan. Danny smiled a little more and nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"Good."

The captain looked over to Majestic. "As for you guys. We are going to send you in close to the ship. Your mission is to quietly board the ship, locate Jul 'Mdama, and assassinate him. If you find Dr. Halsey there, then escort her safely out of there. Extraction may be difficult, but we will find a way to get you guys out of there, or if you can, find an alternative way of extraction. Any questions?"

Hoya raised his hand. "If we do find her, should we expect Halsey to be ambulatory?"

"Well you guys already know how the Covenant plays their game, and we know for a fact that she was shot," Palmer looked away and sneered. "So there's a high chance that she will not be ambulatory. So that means you guys are going to have to take some extra gear to hall her outta there." The captain pointed at Crimson. "This goes for you guys as well."

Jon rose his hand. "Are we expecting any contacts near the crash site?"

The captain nodded. "Absolutely. Also we have reason to believe there is another opposing threat on the planet. Roland spare some more details."

Roland nodded and was about to start talking but then he stopped and put his hand to his ear. "Actually, sir," he pointed at the briefing table and a transmission popped up. "We have more intel. Spartan Miller just sent me this."

Multiple Sangheili voices popped up in the transmission along with plasma fire erupting in the background. Many death cries from lesser Covenant forces started coming up making the Sangheili's voice get more distressed. Suddenly, hisses and shrieks started getting louder and closer to the radio.

"Is that translated?" The captain asked the AI.

"As of now. He said something about serpent-like creatures attacking their position. And lots of them. They have acidic blood and are very quick. I'm hearing what they are calling them, but I can't make out the name."

Palmer glanced at Lasky with a confused expression. "Try to spell it then."

Roland stood there rubbing his virtual chin and squinted his eyes. "Uh, from their alphabet to ours, this going to be hard." The AI paced around the hologram, still rubbing his chin.

"I'm spelling out: X, E, N, O, M,O,R, P, H. Xenomorph in our language. That makes no sense. I'm looking through the archives and there's nothing in the UNSC, or ONI for that matter, on information about these _Xenomorphs_."

Eric spoke up. "Where did that transmission come from on the planet?"

"Right here." Roland pointed to the cruiser's crash site. "We aren't sending you guys in alone for that matter, right captain?"

Lasky nodded. "Right. I'll contact multiple marine and army platoons to assist you with the operation. Any other questions?"

The nine Spartans shook their heads.

"Alright. Get ready 'cause you all dock at 0800. Dismissed. Good luck Spartans." The captain saluted the Spartans. The Spartans saluted back and left the room.

* * *

"You think this will be a bug hunt?" Dylan asked the other three Spartans as he placed more 14.5mm rounds in his magazine.

Danny shrugged and glanced at Eric. "Couldn't tell ya, man. What you think, lieutenant?" He grabbed another carton of 9.5mm rounds for his BR85HB.

Eric looked up from cleaning his LMG. "It doesn't matter. If they're there, then those Xenomorphs are going taste the lead of the UNSC for the first time and they'll know not to fuck with us."

The other three Spartans chuckled and glanced at each other. Jon loaded up eight 8-gauge shotgun shells into his M45D.

"Yeah yeah whatever you say, lieutenant," Danny sarcastically replied. The lieutenant snorted and loaded a magazine in his SAW.

Suddenly, Roland popped out of the hologram device. "Spartans, it's 0750. Are you fellas ready?"

Dylan pulled the bolt back and injected an anti-tank round in the chamber to his SRS99D then strapped a M6D handgun in his holster. "Yep."

Jon attached his shotgun onto his back and strapped a belt of eight grenades around his waist. He hauled up a LRG Railgun and grabbed a couple of charges then placed the Railgun on his back. He put on his helmet then nodded to the AI.

Danny attached an Assault Rifle and his BR85 onto his back, put on his helmet and rose a thumb at the AI.

Eric strapped six mags for his LMG around his waist, picked up his trusty SAW and a M395 DMR, placed them on his back and nodded to the AI.

"Alright, you guys look sick, I gotta admit. Alright to the pelican, men." The AI disappeared from the hologram.

Danny fist pumped Dylan and Jon. "Alright, here's the deal. Whoever kills the most xenos in this op doesn't have to pay for his round of drinks until we get back home, deal?"

Jon formed a wide smile. "Seems like you guys are going to pay for my drinks, then."

Dylan shook his head and pushed Jon back lightly. "In your dreams. Everyone knows I'll win this."

Danny smiled started walking to the door behind Eric who was more interested in getting the op done. "Alright alright, don't be so overconfident there, boys. I'll show ya how a real man does business around here."

Eric snorted at the remark and shook his head. "Alright Crimson, lets get a move on."

* * *

"Pilot, what is the ETA?" Eric questioned the pelican's pilot as they approached the uncharted planet.

"Two minutes, fifteen seconds, sir," the pilot replied.

"Alright gents, nice and easy dispersal this time!"

The three other Crimson Spartans smirked inside their helmets and undid the safeties to their firearms. Danny leaned up to Dylan and Jon.

"You boys ready to get your asses kicked?"

Dylan smacked the taller Spartan's helmet. "Shut it, man! You don't stand a chance against this!" He tapped his SRS.

Jon tapped both of their shoulders and lifted his Railgun. "Nah, you guys will bow down do my broomstick right here!"

A screen popped up in their HUD with Commander Palmer in the com. "_Crimson, your job could turn out to be boring. The infrared shows there's almost nothing alive down there, but there are pockets of heat down there._"

Spartan Miller came up in the com. "_Commander, there is a lot of movement down there. Could be interference from the debris. So stay frosty, keep your safeties off and your guards up._"

The pelican landed next a fallen phantom with deceased Covenant laying around it. The four Spartans piled out and created a secure parameter. The pelican lifted off and left the area. Debris was scattered around the ground and blue and purple fire was arising out of the drop ship. Dylan slowly walked up to a dead Sangheili.

"Jesus, look at this guy," he said with disgust written all over his face. The hinge-head's face was melted down to the bone and its arm looked as if it was melted down by a very hot or acidic substance. Even the ground under the body was melted down a bit. The Sangheili armor had several scratch marks on the chest plate.

Danny took a look at the body. "Plasma residue, huh?"

Eric shook his head. "No, there's no burn marks. This couldn't of been a plasma burn." The leader of Crimson tapped on his communication device on his wrist. "Spartan E-015 to Infinity and all ground units. Fireteam Crimson has found the remains of a dead Sangheili bastard and it looks like it died from some sort of acidic substance." The CO pressed the com directing out to all ground teams. "This is Spartan E-015 of Crimson team to all personal on the ground. Be advised, hostiles are heavily acidic and are considered extremely dangerous at close range." He closed the com and looked around the area at the other fallen Covenant.

Jon turned his head around and noticed a dead creature on the ground. He pumped an 8 gauge shell into his shotgun which got the other Spartans' attention. "Guys I think I found a contact." He slowly approached the organism and studied its figure. He radioed in to Command. "Infinity, are you getting this?"

Palmer's voice radioed back. "_Affirmative__, careful Spartan Satoran. Make sure the thing is dead._" Jon nodded and kicked the creature in the backside. The body didn't react.

"_Spartan, we're getting lots of interference through the coms, can you give us a description of the organism?_" Spartan Miller asked through the HUD in Jon's helmet.

Jon crouched down and turned the beast around. "Uh, it has an exoskeletal figure to it. It's black. It's roughly nine feet tall. Has sharp claws on it's _hand _which is around ten inches long. The tail is roughly twelve feet long with a sharp tip at the end of it. The structure of the exoskeleton is tube-like. The head weaves back behind its head and the mouth is similar to that of the Sangheili, y'know with the mandibles. But I can't see the eyes." He spread open the mandibles around the creature's face and glanced inside. "It seems to have an inner jaw."

Miller radioed back in. "_Thanks Spartan. Go deeper through the wreckage and see if you find anything. But be careful down there._"

The coms closed and Danny turned his mic off. "Well this is shit. If we are going in there with things like that," he pointed at the dead xenomorph, "we're gonna get our asses handed over!"

Dylan laughed and turned around. "Ha, what happened to the mister 'I'll-show-you-how-a-real-man-does-business'?"

Danny lowered his rifle and walked up next to the sharpshooter. "We'll this ain't like fighting the damn Covenant, is it?"

"We haven't even seen a live one yet! Just cool it, man!" Dylan smacked the soldier's chest plate.

"Alright alright, knock it off you two. We have a job to do. It's best we get to it," Eric ordered the lesser members of Crimson.

Eric walked in front of the three Spartans and signaled them to follow, so they did. The fireteam came across a large opening into the cruiser's interior. "Jon, you take point. Danny, cover our rear," the former Spartan III ordered the IV's.

Danny nodded. "With pleasure," he sarcastically replied. The hallway had broken wires and pipes all around the walls. Electricity leaked out of the wiring and fuel seeped through the ceiling. "I got a bad feeling about this," Danny quietly said to the other three Spartans.

"Danny, you always have a bad feeling before we get into a fight," Dylan scolded him.

Suddenly, Jon rose a fist. The four Spartans immediately ended their chatter and stood still. "What's the problem?" Eric asked the point man.

"My motion tracker is acting up thirty meters twelve o'clock." Jon has a modified motion tracker that is ranged at forty meters. The standard UNSC motion tracker is twenty five meters. "The signal is just staying in one position but is moving enough to show up on the tracker."

Eric glanced back at the two rear Spartans. "Alright boys, we got company. Keep your guard up."

"_Crimson_," Miller's voice came up in the HUD. "_We have some heat signatures twelve o'clock of your position. They don't seem to be moving though, that's weird. Commander?_"

"_Yes Miller?_"

"_Take a look at this. Why are the Covenant bunched up like this? Sorry, the signal is weak but it's still visible._"

The four Spartans all knelt down and aimed at the door that led into the next room. Danny glanced at Dylan and tapped him on the shoulder. Dylan quickly glanced back at him then back at the door.

"The competition starts now, good luck," he said sarcastically.

Dylan smirked and shook his head. "Shut it, man. Looks like you'll be buying me drinks for a while."

Palmer's voice rose up from the com. "_That's weird. Roland, check and see what the deal is with this?_"

The AI's voice popped in each of the Spartan's helmets. "_I have an explanation, but it doesn't make sense._"

"_Tell us anyways,_" the commander ordered the AI.

"_Seems like they are being brought there. I managed to pull up some files about the flood that Cortana stored in archive six years ago, and it's adding up._"

"_The flood have been extinct since then. Are you saying that these organisms are flood?_"

"_No ma'am, not at all. But their behavior is very similar, if not, exact. They are storing bodies just like the flood did. The thing that is weird is that they are alive. They are taking in live hosts._"

"_For what?_" Miller asked the AI.

"_Something similar to the infection forms of the flood. This species, these Xenomorphs are very similar, if not, more dangerous than the flood. If you manage to capture an infection form, bring it in and I'll take an analysis on its weaknesses and its nature._"

"_Forget that, Crimson, stay with the operation. We are here to find whatever Jul thinks is valuable in here._"

The four Spartans all acknowledged the commander and got to their feet. The three newer Spartan IVs muted their coms.

"Well this is shit. We're facing against something more dangerous than the fucking flood?" Danny nearly screamed at the lieutenant.

"Shut it, soldier. We'll be just fine. I've dealt with the flood before."

"Yeah but this ain't the flood, man!" Danny yelled back.

Suddenly they heard the screams from a Sangheili in the next room. "C'mon Spartans." Eric ran for the door. The three other Spartans hesitated then followed behind the leader. The door automatically opened up and there was an elite stuck onto the wall screaming at the top of his lungs. The room was covered completely with this strange black sticky cartilage. Danny ran up to the elite and pointed his gun at the thing's head.

"_Kill me!_" The elite shouted at the Spartans in it's heavy accent. The four Spartans glanced at each other and then back at the elite.

Suddenly the elite's chest started moving abnormally and the elite screamed in agony, roaring and expanding it's mandibles.

"Get back, now!" Eric ordered the Spartans. The four super soldiers took several steps back and watched the elite roar in agony.

Suddenly, the elite's chest exploded. Purple guts flew everywhere. Jon wiped the alien blood off his visor. Hisses and shrieks came from the body. A worm-like creature struggled to get out of the body and the four Spartans hesitated.

"Jon! Waste that bitch!" Danny shouted. Jon pointed his shotgun at the little creature and pulled the trigger. The creature's head exploded on impact and the acid started melting through the elite's armor and flesh.

Hisses and shrieks started echoing in the air and the four Spartans aimed their weapons around the room. "Lieutenant, I think now is the best time to get the fuck outta here!" Danny yelled at the C.O.

Dylan nodded. "I'm with Danny on this one sir, this isn't going to be much of a fight, especially in this darkness!"

Eric nodded. "I agree, Crimson fall back now!"

The four Spartans ran for the door. When the door opened up, there stood a black serpent with its arms stretched out wide. It roared and swiftly swiped its arm at Eric, sending him flying back. He collided with Danny and the two hit the floor.

"What the fuck?!" Dylan quickly aimed at the black beast and fired a 14.5mm round at its chest. The xeno's chest area blew open, spraying acid everywhere behind it and it dropped down to the ground dead. Dylan rushed up to Eric and Danny. He helped Eric up first then reached a hand out for Danny.

"That's one," he said with a smirk in his helmet.

"Shut up," Danny replied with a frown.

Jon turned around and started shelling the room with his shotgun. "Uh, guys? You can count your tally later, you wanna help out a friend?" A xeno came fairly close to Jon and swiped its tail at him. Jon dodged the attack then kicked the beast hard in the chest. The xeno staggered back a couple steps and Jon finished him off with a shotgun shell. The acid sprayed onto a pillar from the impact and the body dropped to the ground.

Eric pulled the bolt back to his SAW and squeezed down the trigger unloading on the incoming threats. Flashes from the guns were the only hope of seeing in the nearly pitch black room. Danny pulled the bolt back on his BR85 and started picking off xenos in the head. One xeno managed to get close and he scratched his helmet leaving a deep mark and his shields depleted. He scurried back a couple feet just before the serpent impaled him with his tail. Much to his surprise, the xeno flew back several feet after a loud bang. Dylan looked away from the scope and glanced down at Danny.

"I just saved you twice, man! Get in the game!"

Eric wasted six xenos with his SAW and then the gun stopped firing. "Shit!" He checked the indicator on his gun. He was dry. "Fall back now!"

Jon fired off one last shell into the abyss, turned around and followed the C.O. out of the room. Danny chucked a grenade into the room, grabbed Dylan by the collar and they both sprinted out of the room.

Eric realized he and Jon were far ahead of the other two Spartans so they both stopped. They were just ten yards away from the exit. He listened to the gunshots deep inside the hallways then studied the walls. He spotted a couple of plasma batteries attached to a transporter on the wall. He quickly looked over to Jon.

"Jon, get your Railgun out! As soon as you see those two clear the radius of the plasma batteries, light them up! We need to buy some time!"

Jon nodded and pulled out his Railgun. He injected a round in the chamber and aimed at the plasma batteries.

Danny and Dylan both came into view and Eric tapped Jon on the shoulder. "Get ready." The two other Spartans blindly fired rounds behind them at countless figures crawling on the walls and ceiling. "Now!" Eric shouted.

Jon held in the trigger and released an explosive round at the batteries. The batteries exploded and the ceiling caved in over mass amounts of xenos.

"Excellent job, Jon," the lieutenant congratulated and patted him on the back.

Danny and Dylan caught up with them and tried catching their breath. "Sir.. I think.. It's time to get a lift back to Infinity."

Palmer's voice came through the HUD. "_Not yet. There has been mass reports of casualties and SOS's throughout the vicinity with the marines and the army. Crimson, I need you to go out there and save our boys. Okay?_"

Eric took a deep annoyed breath and pressed the coms button on his wrist. "Roger, Infinity. Crimson, out."


	3. Fear

**Here's chapter 3. I hope this turned out pretty well cuz I revised this chapter A couple times, then again I'm no five star author. But still, I think this chapter is pretty good. I hope you guys feel the same after you read it, have fun and review the chapter after you're done please!**

**disclaimer: I don't own anythang**

* * *

"What are you kidding me? They're sending us out there to face more of those things?" Danny shouted and glared at the lieutenant.

Eric smacked him in the back of the helmet. "What would you say if you were one of those marines out there? They don't stand a chance. They need us."

Danny frowned behind his visor and nodded slowly to the C.O.

The pelican swooped down and landed next to the fireteam. The four Spartans piled into the transporter and the drop ship lifted off further into the wreckage. Gunfire sound all across the vicinity.

Dylan closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands. "Damn, there must be thousands of them."

"It doesn't matter," Eric commented. "You saw how the thing exploded when you shot it with the .50. They aren't invincible."

Dylan looked up and stared at the Spartan III. "Yeah but I have only so much ammo. I only have five clips left, that's twenty rounds total!"

The pelican started lowering next to a small platoon of marines. Eric took out his DMR and handed it to the sniper. "Here. I didn't like using it anyway." He gave him more six mags.

Dylan took out his pistol and gave it to the lieutenant. Eric shook his head and pushed the sidearm away. "No, keep it."

Dylan shook his head. "Sir, I insist. I'm not going to go in battle with three weapons when you have only one. Take it."

Eric looked at the handgun for a little bit then he took it reluctantly. Dylan passed him five mags.

The pelican dropped to the ground and the four Spartans piled out with their weapons ready. One of the marines ran up to the Spartans.

"Sir, Corporal Hines of King company," the marine's tone had a sense of fear.

Eric moved past the marine focusing himself on the situation in front of him. "What's the status on King?"

There were six marines bunched around a blown up banshee aiming at an opening to the downed cruiser. They all looked over to Spartans with the clearest sense of pure fear.

"Not good," the corporal replied lowly. "Eleven casualties and MIA's. Sarge lead us into the ship and we got ambushed by these _things_. We didn't stand a chance against their shear numbers, but we managed to drop a few on the way out, but they just kept coming."

Eric nodded and patted the marine on the back. "Alright marine. Get on the pelican and get your men to safety. Just one thing."

"What is it, sir?"

"Tell me the positions of the other platoons."

The marine took a deep breath. "There's three other platoons that I know of in the vicinity, however, they aren't responding back on their coms. I think they were Beta, Foxtrot, and Omega. It could be interference from the cruiser, but I'm not sure. There was a lot of gunfire not too long ago." The marine took off his helmet and scratched his head. "The first group last radioed in a half hour ago a half mile northwest. The other two radioed in from the northeast roughly two miles out. I hope that's enough to work with."

Eric used his compass in his HUD and glanced in both directions. "Yeah. That's good enough." He turned around and looked at his team. "Alright Crimson, lets go get our boys."

* * *

Captain Lasky stood at the briefing table studying the hologram that showed the forces deployed around the cruiser. There were many reports of casualties resulted from ambushes by these Xenomorphs.

"Roland, did you find out anything about our new contacts?" He rubbed his chin and glanced over to Roland's hologram station.

The AI popped into vision. "Actually yeah now that you asked me. I managed to get past the interference in Spartan Satoran's helmet and I managed to figure out a couple things about our _new friends_."

Lasky bit lightly on his index finger and focused his attention on the AI. "Go on. I'm listening."

The AI took a deep breath. "Well it seems that they are an exoskeletal organism that is carnivorous. I did an analysis on the structure of their outer shell and it seems to be made from protein polysaccharides."

"Meaning?"

"A very hard chitin. It's able to withstand a lot punishment, even from our projectile based weapons. Although it seems to have a weakness to fire. Then I found out that they have another outer shell coated with polarized silicone which allows it to live in the most extreme climates. Also, I've received multiple transmissions from other units on the ground and I realized that some Xenomorphs look different than others, but are very similar to covenant. Here see for yourself." The AI snapped his fingers and six images came up. Three of dead Xenomorphs and beside each was a picture of a Kig-Yar, a Sangheili and an Unngoy.

Roland zoomed in on the Sangheili and the Xenomorph picture next to it. "You see here," he pointed at the mouth of the xeno, "it's very similar to that elite's mandibles. Y'know, the spit chin, or whatever you humans call it." The captain rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yeah and this one here has extraordinary large fangs shaped the same way as the jackal, but it looks like it is built more for stealth. And then there's the grunt xeno. Fairly small compared to other xenos, but you can see it has this sack on the side of its enlarged head. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing there's acid stored in those glands which means it can spit acid from long range. Again I could be wrong. As a whole, these guys are built for stealth, hit and run tactics."

The captain stood silent for a long moment and looked over at the person operating the coms relay. "Stevenson, order the withdrawal of all the ground teams except for Fireteam Majestic. We need to inform them on what we are dealing with."

"Aye aye, sir," the coms operator turned around and began ordering the retreat of all ground teams.

* * *

A sharp beeping alarm repeatedly pierced through the air. Swiftblade shook his head in surprise and pressed a couple buttons on his chair which activated a large visual device that locked in front of his face. An infrared vision showed multiple figures, tall and short firing at entities that didn't give off any signature of heat. The vision shifted to darker toned image and countless neon-green serpent-like figures were swarming towards the warm blooded creatures.

The vision suddenly snapped to the left and a green apparition steadied itself over the vision. The unblooded hunter tried its hardest to get free from the serpents grasp, but every attempt just couldn't move the beast off it.

The serpent shrieked loudly, opened up its mandibles, revealing the inner jaw, and ejected the jaw out just above the camera. The young hunter's head fell back limp and at the bottom of the screen, the serpent flailed its large head and roared in victory. Swiftblade growled vigorously at the sight and exited the transmission. He shifted his chair around and expanded his mandibles in rage.

The blooded hunter quickly got up from his chair and rushed to his archive of weapons and gadgets. He grabbed his combstick that he has had since his first hunt, the most powerful plasmacaster he has at his disposal, a large glaive that can slice through iron, his trusty wristblades, and finally his ancient face mask. He attached his face mask and rushed over to his single light speed pod. He put himself inside the small transporter, typed in the location of the planet he was going to, and slowly pressed a large button. The spacecraft immediately lifted off and descended to the infesting planet.

* * *

Captain Lasky stood in front of all the UNSC platoons and Spartan Fireteams and informed crucial intel about the newly discovered species. He explained the features of the organisms, their weaknesses, what they are built for and how lethal they can be compared to the Covenant.

Eric still felt a sense of guilt from being ordered to withdraw from the fallen cruiser. The thing that crossed his mind the most was the fact that he could save those marines. Even though, _orders are orders_. That phrase forced him to recollect on the fall of Reach, the evacuation of New Alexandria in particular. His orders were to guide civilians to the escape transport. He did an exceptionally good job on defending the transport until take off, but in the end, the transporter was shot down by one of the corvettes in the airspace. After he realized that there were still survivors in the transport, he immediately requested Command to go save the survivors. However, Command ordered him to stand down. He obeyed that order without hesitation, but it still bothered him greatly. He knew he had the ability to save those survivors, but _orders are orders_.

The rest of Crimson team stood in very back of the hall next to Spartan Dalton. He and Dylan were friends since training. Dylan nudged his old friend. "Dalton, how many boys did we lose?"

Before they were ordered to withdraw from the wreckage, Crimson team landed to the location of last known transmission of Beta company. Needless to say, every marine was MIA. The only things Crimson found at the site were their weapons. Dylan frowned at thought of what those men are going through right now.

Dalton made no eye contact with his old friend and he took a deep breath. "Roughly fifteen hundred marines. More than half of them are MIA."

Dylan's reaction dropped. Danny overheard the casualty rate and his eyes widened. "That's about a quarter of the marines of Infinity! How did this happen?"

Dalton shrugged and glanced at his friend. "Those xenos just came out of nowhere. We didn't know what we had coming at us. We should of known.."

Dylan rose an eyebrow. "What makes you say that? We couldn't of possibly known what we were dealing with."

Dalton shook his head looked back at captain making his address on the contagious organisms. "Think about it, man. Four Covenant ships blown up from these bugs. That has to be around twenty-five hundred Covies, if not way more. That should of been a big red flag telling us that there're some dangerous contacts on the ground. We should of probed the situation before we just sent troops on the ground." Dalton shook his head in complete utter guilt.

Dylan thought about what his friend told him. '_He's right, we should learned more about the situation on the ground. Now fifteen hundred plus marines are MIA or KIA. God damn it.._' The sniper shook his head and glanced over to Danny.

"Dude, fifteen hundr-"

"I know I know, I heard," Danny shook his head and glared back at the captain. He knew deep down that the captain shouldn't be blamed entirely but the Spartan couldn't suppress his feeling of guilt.

Dylan nudged his fellow Crimson member. "They all can't be dead. We have to save them."

Danny shot back a look of astonishment and fear. "Oh yeah sure, with those things crawling out there? You count me out?"

The sniper frowned and gritted his teeth. "Hey, you fucking put yourself in their place!" He quietly yelled. "If you were in there, wouldn't you want someone to save your sorry ass?" Danny looked away from the sniper and crossed his arms. He couldn't find anything to rebuke. "C'mon man, you're a Spartan for God's sake! You shouldn't be afraid of giant cockroaches."

Danny stood still with his back against the way. He knew his friend was right, but he still couldn't forget the memory of being launched back by that xeno several feet with one swipe. He can take on a Sangheili Zealot no problem at hand to hand combat, but against a Sangheili Xenomorph, he wouldn't stand a chance at hand to hand combat which scares the shit out out of him. He's used to being the muscle of Crimson, always dispatching those hinge heads with his hands and combat knife, but now he felt vulnerable against his new foes. These bugs were his worst fear. Possibly even more than the Flood.

He wondered what the other marines were going through as he just stood there. The agony they must be experiencing. He couldn't begin to think about their pain. Part of him felt that they didn't deserve to be in that misery and that he should just go in and get those marines out of there, but he was still fighting that fear if he does go back in there, his rescue mission could go to shit and he most likely understand that misery.

The tall Spartan shook his head and glanced over to Jon who was tuned in listening to the captain. He nudged the heavy weaponry expert. "Jon, are you afraid of those bugs?"

Jon looked over to his fellow teammate and paused, thinking about what he really was feeling. He looked back up at the taller Spartan and shrugged a little. Truth be told, Jon wasn't afraid of many things. The only thing he was afraid of was losing his team and being responsible for other marines' deaths.

"Not exactly," he replied quietly. "I mean, those things are more dangerous than the Covenant, but in the end, I'm not really afraid of dying. So why should I fear a dangerous bug? Y'know what I'm saying?"

Danny nodded once and turned back to the captain. He thought deeply about what Jon told him. He couldn't get past his fellow Spartan's mindset of not fearing absolute pain and agony. Danny knew he would experience a ton of pain when he volunteered to be a Spartan IV, but the augmentations to his body were nothing compared to what those marines on the ground were most likely feeling. Dying quick and painlessly was what the Spartan convinced himself the way he'd go out if it comes to that.

Captain Lasky powered down the holographic screen. "Alright men. You know what your jobs are. Keep your guards up, eyes and ears open, and get your buddies back home."

The entire hall of UNSC soldiers saluted the captain. "AYE AYE SIR!"

* * *

"Crimson, ETA, sixty seconds! You be careful down there!" The pilot yelled back at the Spartans.

Eric rose a hand. "Thanks Valkyrie," he pulled his bolt back to his SAW and adjusted his helmet, "alright boys, nice easy dispersal this time. Keep your guns up and eyes open. It's time get our boys back."

Danny slapped a clip into his BR85HB and injected a round into the chamber. He studied the three claw engravings on the top of helmet and traced it with his finger. Thoughts of what was waiting for him haunted his mind and he shook his head. He put on his marked helmet and looked out into the darkness of the night and the light blue and purple flames erupting in the debris. He smacked his helmet and closed his eyes tight, 'Overcome that fear, damn it! You're a Spartan, act like one! Spartans don't fear anything.' His eyes opened quickly and fire reflect across his blue eyes. His pupils widened and every muscle in his body tensed up. His eyebrows lowered and he focused in on the LZ the pelican was landing on.

The pelican finally came to the ground and the first one out was Danny with his BR armed and ready to blow any giant bug to Oblivion.

"Go go go!" Eric shouted behind them. The four Spartans scanned the LZ and didn't find any contacts or bugs.

"Clear!" Jon shouted.

Danny found an entrance to the crashed cruiser and signaled the Fireteam. "I have an opening!"

The three Spartans formed up a steady parameter and Eric radioed in to Infinity. "Miller, do you have readings to any of the marines' IF tags?"

Miller's com relay popped up in each Spartans HUD. "_Yes actually, but they aren't in the ship. They are actually just north of the crash, a straight shot from your position. Are you guys coming into any contact with the xenos?_"

"Not yet, but we are ready for them when they show up. What are the positions of the marine platoons?"

"_They are scattered around the crash creating a safe parameter. The nearest one is a quarter of a mile east._"

"Tell them to hold my position here, we are going to go in."

"_Will do, Crimson. Be careful in there._"

Roland's com popped up into the lieutenant's HUD. "_Spartan E-015, just letting you ahead of time, you won't be getting any radio coms once you go deep in the wreckage. Those IF tags are fifty feet under the ground. The location to them is a cave and the entrance is located near the northern part of the ship. It seems that this cruiser fell right on top of it._"

"_Yeah Roland's right,_" Miller commented. "_I'll mark the location to the cave's entrance. And like he said before, you won't be getting any coms in that depth. Sorry fellas. Get our boys out of there._"

"Wilco." Eric turned off his coms and glanced at his Fireteam. "I know what you guys are feeling, but we can do this. These bugs don't stand a chance against Crimson. C'mon, lets get our boys outta this hell." The three other Spartans acknowledged their C.O. and the team moved on into the crash site.

Dylan held his high powered rifle stiff against his right shoulder and studied the purple walls of the hallway. This part of the hallway still had power so the lights lit up the passage. The marker in each Spartan's HUD became larger with every step. The range to the entrance of the cave was thirty-five yards. No contacts, no noise. Silence with the exception of electric wiring crackling.

Suddenly Jon rose a fist and four Spartans froze just before an open door. Eric quietly approached Jon. "Satoran, what's wrong?"

Jon shushed him and pointed at the door. "There's something just on the other side of the door. It just came out of thin air." The Spartan pumped a shell into the chamber and aimed at the door.

"What should we do?" Dylan questioned the lieutenant.

Eric glanced around the hallway and noticed there were no places for cover. He exhaled a frustrated breath and pointed at Danny and Jon. "You two, get on that side of the hallway. Williams, behind me." The group split in the hallway and pointed their guns at the doorway.

Eric quietly pressed his coms device. "Satoran, what's it doing?"

Jon glanced back at his commanding officer and shrugged. "He's just standing there."

* * *

Swiftblade tracked a separate Xenomorph deep into the weirdest looking ship he's seen in all his years. He knew his technology far exceeded from this technology and its architecture. The blooded hunter scanned the room several times and was ready to move along, but suddenly a hissing noise from behind caught his attention.

Swiftly, he evaded forward and realized he dodged an attack that could of impaled right through his chest. He scanned the creature and his indicated it was a Xenomorph. The Xenomorph dropped down from the ceiling and stood up on its hind legs making it five inches taller than the hunter.

The serpent extended its mandibles at the hunter and shrieked loudly. Swiftblade pulled out his glaive and prepared itself for a worthy fight. The xeno extended out its arms and flailed its tail about then charged at the hunter.

The hunter roared his war cry started sprinting at the bug. The two aliens collided into each however the xeno was too big so the hunter recoiled back several feet to the ground. The xeno jumped up and snapped its tail at the hunter's head, but the hunter reacted quickly and shifted his head to the left. The the momentum of the tail forced the tip to be engraved into the purple metal floor. The xeno tried to pull its tail out but it was too deep. Swiftblade took advantage of the time and he ejected his wristblades and swiped at the tail cutting it clean off. The xeno screeched out in pain and the rest of its tail whipped around in air, splattering all over the door next to them. The hunter kicked the serpent off of him making it stagger back.

Swiftblade jumped to his feet and kicked up his glaive. The xeno shook its head and refocused on the opposing alien. The hunter charged at it and side swiped its glaive at the xeno's chest area severing the hard exoskeletal abdomen. A huge death roar erupted out of the xeno and it fell on its back with acid gushing out of the laceration. Swiftblade sheathed his duel ended glaive, ejected his wrist blades and pierced into the serpents elongated head, forcing the nerves to twitch sporadically. He twisted and turned his arm pulled up severing the head clean off. The hunter scanned the skull, lifted his arms up and let off a gigantic victory roar.

The super predator attached the trophy on his back and turned around to see something he wasn't expecting. His vision saw the outline of four shorter yautja-like being with what seemed to be robotic. He switched his vision to infrared but the heat signatures of the beings were suppressed by the metallic coating, so he switched it to cardiovascular vision that read the signatures of the heart. Four heart beats came up in each figure. They were organic under that metal and they were human.

Swiftblade shifted to Neuro-vision and scanned the humans according to their emotional feelings. The readings were yellow around each of them meaning they were potentially dangerous but they weren't on the offensive.

"What are you?" One of the taller humans asked the hunter. Swiftblade took out his glaive and stood his ground in a defensive stance. He activated his plasmacaster and aimed his tri-lasers at the middle human.

Suddenly, he recoiled to his right onto the ground and looked up at what was on to of him. It was a smaller xeno but it still managed to pin the hunter to the ground. It gave out a deafening shriek and rose its arm in the arm. Just before the hunter prepared itself for a strike, the xeno's chest area exploded spraying acid into a pillar. The xeno was launched off the hunter and dropped dead on the ground.

The hunter jumped to his feet and glanced over to the humans. One of the humans had its long slug-projective based weapon aimed at him with smoke coming out of the end of the barrel.

* * *

Dylan couldn't tell if saving this creature was a good or bad idea. The alien was just standing there staring at them with its double-edged glaive or spear. He looked over to Danny and shrugged.

"Hey, we aren't going to harm you," Eric said as he lowered his SAW. The creature focused on it and stood its ground. "Guys, put your guns down. It's not hostile." The three other Spartans lowered their guns but still kept their defensive stance.

The larger humanoid lowered its glaive, reduced the size and placed it on its back. It gave the four Spartans an slight nodding expression that signified a '_thank you_'. Eric hesitated but figured the only thing was to nod back, so he nodded back at the alien. Then out of the blue, the alien turned and disappeared right in front of him. The four Spartans were startled at sudden act of camouflage. They heard light footsteps fading away into the darkness of the wreckage and silence fell upon Crimson. The four Spartans looked at each other with extremely confused looks.

Danny broke the silence. "What the hell just happened?"

* * *

"Majestic to Infinity, come in," DeMarco shouted and pressed the coms button rather hard as he watched countless phantoms and spirits departing from the Jul's cruiser.

Commander Palmer's IF tag popped on com. "_Go ahead DeMarco, what's your situation?_"

"Look at Jul's ship. There're multiple bogies heading in the direction of the crash site. There has to be fifty phantoms, maybe more."

"_Shit, I see them. I'll notify the captain - thanks for the warning. What's your team's status?_"

"We are directly under the ship just near the gravity lift. Permission to board the cruiser," the Spartan glanced at his team. Madsen looked in his scope and surveyed the Covenant guarding the gravity lift.

"_Permission granted. Be careful in there. Palmer out._" The connection to the transmission disconnected and the C.O. looked over to his fellow Spartans.

"Alright ladies, we are going to board that ship." He patted Thorne on the shoulder and looked over to Majestic's snipe. "Who's guarding the joint?"

Madsen looked away from his scope at DeMarco. "Well, it's not what I expected actually. Granted, there's a lot Covies guarding this crucial point, but they are cut down on troops. Anyways, there's fifteen elites, thirty-two jackets, six with snipers, and roughly forty-five grunts. Then for armor, one wraith and two ghosts."

DeMarco glanced over the large rock out into the flat arid field at the positions. The field was bowl-like, similar to the quarry back on Requiem. Four sniper towers covered the gravity lift in a square-like position. Barriers surrounded the lift with a couple of mounted turrets. The wraith was patrolling on the opposite side of the lift from the fireteam and two ghosts patrolled their side. The Covenant did not have their guard up with more than half the grunts sleeping, the elites were talking to each other with maybe a few staying guard and the jackals screeched at each other.

"Seems like this will be easy." DeMarco looked back at wraith and realized its power core was pointing at them. A clear shot. "Madsen, see that wraith?" He pointed at the purple hovering tank.

The sniper looked through his scope. "Yeah."

"On my mark, shot at the power core. Thorne, Grant, you both take aim at those two ghosts. Pop those grunts in the head. We can use those machines to our advantage. Hoya, use that rocket to take out those sniper towers. Alright?" The four Spartans nodded. "Okay get in position."

Madsen pulled the bolt back and injected an anti-tank round into the high powered rifle. He took a deep relaxed breath and waited for the order. Thorne and Grant took aim at the grunts with their DMRs and waited for the word.

"Alright, weapons free."

Madsen took a deep breath then squeezed the trigger and rifle made a deafening bang. Madsen looked away from the scope then back at the wraith. As expected, the power core detonated blue flames and shrapnel flew around the vehicle. Then a larger blue explosion went off due to a plasma mortar accidentally firing a energy ball in the damaged barrel. The explosion was massive.

Thorne and Grant picked off the two grunts manning the ghosts and started working their way up to the lift. The Covenant finally returned fire at the Spartans. DeMarco started rushing towards one of the ghosts firing rounds out of his assault rifle at a couple elites. Hoya lifted his rocket launcher, took aim at a sniper tower holding two snipers and an elite range and fired a rocket at it. The tower exploded and fell to the ground with no remains left of the enemy. Without hesitating, he fired another rocket at the next tower, blowing it up.

DeMarco mounted the ghost and moved around to flank the Covies, dispatching any grunt stupid enough to get in front of the jet fast ghost. He swerved around and started firing the plasma cannons at the high ranked elites.

Thorne rushed up next a barrier and swiftly dropped grunt after grunt after jackal. At this point, the caught off guard Covies were beyond confused, not being able to locate where they were getting shot from, except the ghost. Grant chucked a plasma grenade up on one of the towers and it stuck the elite on top. Before its certain demise, it let a death roar and kicked the grunt gunner on top off the tower.

Madsen whizzed another 14.5mm round at the opposing sniper jackal, completely tearing off the top of its abdomen. Bluish purple blood spewed in the air, some getting on the grunt next to it. The grunt screamed in terror, chucked his plasma pistol away, then took out a grenade and slapped it onto his chest, committing suicide and taking out that tower.

Madsen smirked and shook his head in amusement. "Thanks little guy."

DeMarco dropped the last elite and noticed that there were no contacts left. Hoya and Madsen rushed up to the team next to lift and rested their guns on their shoulders. "That it?" Hoya commented with a hint of surprise.

Thorne nodded. "Yeah I guess so. So DeMarco, what's the plan?"

DeMarco dismounted the ghost and approached his Fireteam. "Boarding the ship. We have to get Halsey out of the there. We ready?"

The team nodded.

"Alrighty, lets get on the lift."


	4. The Hive

Electric wires crackled through the dark corridors of the cruiser as Crimson made their way to the checkpoint. They haven't made any contact with that strange humanoid since it went invisible, but they all knew it was staying fairly close to them mostly because Jon traced it a couple times on his motion tracker.

The four Spartans approached to the checkpoint and noticed the entrance was overgrown by the same strange black substance back when the found the elite strapped to the wall. Eric brought his SAW down to his hip and slowly walked towards the checkpoint. He glanced down into the large hole. It lead down at a thirty-five degree angle.

Danny walked up next the lieutenant and looked into the hole with a confused expression. He leaned next to the Spartan III. "We aren't going in there, are we?"

Dylan snorted behind him as he scanned the walls. Eric smirked and rolled his eyes behind his visor. "Yes we are."

Jon froze and rose a signal. "Hold on guys, I'm getting something on my tracker."

Eric looked back at the point man. "What do you see?"

"One contact coming on our three. It's heading straight for us. Moving pretty fast." He pumped a shell into his shotgun and turned to his left. The rest of the of Crimson formed up around Jon. The signal of the being suddenly stopped at thirty-two meters, just before a large opening probably due to a plasma explosion.

"Where's it at?" Eric asked Jon.

The heavy weapons expert shrugged and tapped his helmet in frustration. "I don't know, it just sorta stopped. It must be interference from the structure." He glanced at the meter of the HUD and there was suddenly multiple red dots moving in their direction from the hole. On his meter, it looked as if there's a huge red blog clouding the motion tracker.

"Holy shit, we have multiple contacts from the hole. Oh my fucking God, there's so many of them!" The red dots kept coming. He estimated there had to be roughly forty hostiles heading in their direction.

Eric quickly got in front of the entrance and aimed his LMG down into it. "Crimson, form up! Lets crash their little parade!" The three other Spartans turned their safeties off and crouched down in front of the hole.

Danny took a deep breath and said a little prayer beneath his breath. He pulled out his assault rifle and pointed it down into the hole. Dylan stood next to Eric and aimed down the sights to his 14.5mm.

Jon dropped his shotgun onto the ground and pulled his Railgun from his back. He looked back at his tracker and the dots suddenly went into a single-file line directly at them. Thirty meters. Hisses, shrieks and roars started erupting in the sir around them. Eric remembered he equipped his Promethean Vision module and he activated it. The ray swiftly expanded and there was a huge blob of red.

"Holy shit, weapons free!" Eric squeezed the trigger and knelt down on the ground. Waves of rounds whizzed into the hole creating lots of pained screeching noises. The other Spartans commenced fire and more shrieks and screeches of pain came from the hole, but the xenos kept coming.

Dylan fired all four 14.5mm rounds from his clip into the dark hole and figured it'd better faster to shoot with his handgun. Swiftly, he placed his high powered rifle on his back, pulled his handgun out and started shooting into the hole. Danny sprayed rounds from his assault rifle into the hole.

Jon fired a round from his Railgun and it created a brief blue explosion that also showed the Spartans the visuals of multiple Xenomorphs, although they were all smaller than the ones they've seen before. The mouth wasn't split like the Sangheili Xenomorphs.

Eric realized his SAW went dry and he chucked the arm behind him and pulled out his DMR. The red dots on the motion tracker stopped, but there was still roughly twenty hostiles left.

"Get back!" The C.O. ordered his team and the four Spartans rushed back away from the hole still lighting off rounds. The xenos managed to get free from the small condensed hole and they crawled around on the walls and ceiling. Danny fired a couple rounds at a xeno on the ceiling, making acid rain to the ground. He spotted another one sprinting at him on all fours and he pointed the rifle at the beast, then pulled the trigger, but nothing came out.

"Motherfucker!" He quickly dropped his empty gun and went for his his BR85, but it was too late. The xeno tackled him to ground, depleting a small part of his shields from the impact. It scratched at his armor, making small dent scratches but most of the attacks were suppressed by his shields. Danny sucker punched the xeno in the side of the head making it stagger to the left. The Spartan an advantage of the time and got out from under the serpent. He drew his combat knife and swiped it at the bug's head, but the xeno dodged it and whipped its tail at the super soldier's legs, sending him off his feet to the ground. From the recoil of the sudden snap at the legs, his combat knife got out of his grasp.

"Ah fuck!" He crawled for his combat knife but the bug snapped its tail downward at the Spartans back. Thankfully, his shields repelled the possible impale. Danny quickly turned on his back and kicked the bug in the chest, sending it off its feet. He quickly rushed back to his combat knife and picked up the long blade.

He got to his feet and was in a standoff with the bug. "C'mon you one ugly motherfu-" The xeno screened and pounced at the Spartan. Danny caught the xeno and stuck his knife into its abdomen and pulled up. Acid spurted out of the laceration and some dripped onto his armor. His shields managed to resist the dangerously low pH acid, but it cut the levels more than half. Danny pulled the blade out of the xeno and thrusted one more time into the xeno's forehead. The xeno instantly stopped moving and dropped to the ground.

Jon fired shell after shell out of his 8 gauge at the incoming bugs. Every shotgun shell ripped through the exoskeleton like it was paper. He noticed one bug crawling after Dylan who was firing off rounds from his Magnum at other xenos. Jon pointed his shotgun ahead the quick xeno and squeezed the trigger. The BBs ripped through the xeno's legs and left the lower half with nearly nothing.

"Little low." He pumped the shotgun and wasted the xeno with another shell.

The smoke cleared and it seems the Xenomorphs were all killed. Danny walked up to his combat knife, still engraved in the dead xeno's head, and jerked it out. The metal part of the blade was nearly melted to nothing from the acid.

"Goddamn it." He chucked his combat down the hole and it hit something in the dark. He stopped himself and took a better look at what was in the hole. It was too dark for him to see what exactly it was. He realized his BR was still attached to his back and slowly, he moved his hand to it.

Suddenly there was a deafening roar and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with his head facing the hole. He looked up slowly and saw the largest teeth he's ever seen.

"Oh fuck.."

The other Spartans had their weapons pointed at the larger beast that was in the same line of sight as Danny. Suddenly the beast drew its head out of the darkness of the hole and promulgated the massive size of its cranium. It was nearly the size of the hole.

The giant bug roared loudly, grabbed Danny around his chest and disappeared into the depths of the cave. The three other Spartans rushed to the hole and fired rounds at the giant bug, but it was no use. It and Danny were lost into the darkness of the hole.

* * *

Danny woke up completely dazed and confused of where exactly he was. His eyesight was blurry and he noticed small blue lights in this small space he was trapped in. He tried to move, but he could barely twitch his arms and legs from this sticky and moist substance that kept him in place. Then he realized he was four feet off the ground and he inhaled sharply.

"What the fuck?" He desperately tried to free his arms and he felt the substance coming a little loose. Suddenly he heard a low growl in front of his face and he quickly snapped his helmet toward the noise. Right in front of his visor, was the face a large Xenomorph. It looked like the face was engraved with a human skull just above his mouth.

Danny froze completely and stared at the bug straight into its eyes. The head was ridged like the other ones but it was much deeper in detail. The bug sneered and brought its face closer to the dramatized Spartan, opening it's mouth revealing its inner jaw.

Then sudden noises like plasma fire made the large Xenomorph look away and pursue to the location where the plasma fire came from. Danny quickly started twitching his limbs free of the substance until his right arm for free. He reached for his knife but then remembered that it was dull from the acid damage. Instead, he grabbed ahold of the sticky root-like substance and ripped off a large section that held his left arm in. With both of his hands, he ripped off the roots from his torso and he face planted into the ground.

He shook his head and looked around the small and steamy area. There were these large egg shaped things with a four way opening on top. It crossed his mind and he realized they were eggs.

"Holy shit!" He scurried to his feet and his back met with the slimy wall. He reached for his knife once again but grabbed nothing but air. "-the fuck is my knife?" Both of his firearms were gone but he still had BR85 ammo, if only he could just find a gun.

Suddenly the egg opened which made Danny startle. He glanced around in the room but he could barely see anything. Then he realized he had the regeneration armor ability which did light up. He activated the armor ability and a green light lit up the dark room. The room wasn't so small, it was much larger than he thought like the size of an atrium. Another thing he noticed, the room was full of eggs.

He glanced back at the egg and saw this crab-like creature standing on top of it looking or what seemed to be looking at it. Danny took a couple steps back until his back hit the slimy wall again. The crab-like thing made an eery crackling and bubbling noise. Suddenly it pounced onto Danny, spitting acid on the way up, only to be repelled by his shields, and wrapped its long tail around his neck and its fingers around his face. Danny shook his head fiercely trying to get thing off his face. Through his visor, he saw that it was desperately trying to get this long tannish thing into his face, most likely down his throat.

He grabbed onto the tail of the parasite and easily ripped it off from his neck, tearing the skin from it which spilled acid. His shields were almost completely depleted but he managed to use his other hand to pull the legs from around his head and throw it to the ground. The parasite tried to flip over to its feet, but the Spartan stomped down on its front side, acid splattering everywhere. "Fuck you!"

His shields were pretty much depleted but he then realized that the regeneration field was still active and he took a step inside the aura. Immediately, his shields went fully recharged. He took a better look of the room and noticed there were the bodies of marines and Covenant troops. He ran up to one of the marines and pulled him down from the wall without any effort. The marine seemed to be unconscious. Danny shook him repeatedly and yelled at him, "Marine, get up! Get your ass up!"

The marine flickered his eyes open and looked at the Spartan. "Spartan? W-what happened?"

"You were unconscious when I saw you on the wall. What's your name?" Danny checked his arms and legs for any broken bones. Nothing.

"Corporal Adams, of B company." Danny remembered what the corporal of King said, that they were all MIA. And yet here was one of the missing squad. Danny shook his head and brought the marine up.

"Adams, what's your condition?"

The marine pressed his hand against his chest. "I don't know, sir. I have this horrible chest pain. The last thing I remember before blacking out was something hitting my face and something wrapping around my neck." Danny looked next to the marine and noticed there was a dead crab-like parasite on the ground.

"Shit.." Danny glanced back the soldier and decided to start cutting him down from the wall.

Suddenly, the marine started breathing sporadically and gasped for air. Danny held down the marine but the marine wouldn't stop twitching and gasping. Suddenly, blood splattered all over his visor and he heard light screeches and the marine screaming in agony. Danny quickly wiped the blood away and looked down at the marine. There was a wormlike thing desperately tearing its way out of the man's chest.

"Motherfucker!" Danny grabbed the small xeno and twisted its neck, rendering it motionless. He chucked the dead thing across the room and it hit something in the shade. A ghastly hiss echoed through the room and Danny looked back at where his threw the little xeno. He activated his regeneration field which the lit up the room again and looked back in the direction of the noise. There was the same large Xenomorph from earlier expanding its arms.

"Oh shit.." Danny took a couple steps back and desperately looked for something to use as a weapon. His eyes landed back on the marine and he noticed that his Magnum was still in his holster. The skull-faced Xenomorph slowly walked toward the Spartan with his arms open and his tail whipping through the air. Danny slowly crouched next to the marine and struggled to get the holster open, his eyes still focused on the incoming behemoth. Finally, he pulled the handgun out of the holster and pointed it at the Xenomorph. He noted that he only had eight rounds.

He glanced around at the walls and noticed that there was a Sangheili Zealot right behind him unconscious. There had to be an energy sword on him somewhere, they always carried them. He walked back against the wall and looked around on the elite's armor for the sword or anything useful. It was no use, the xeno was too close to him. He took aim at that xeno's head and pulled trigger. The round nailed the beast in the head, but it didn't seem to faze it. It shook it off like it was a paintball gun. That thing's armor was too thick for these ball rounds.

Desperately and out of frustration, the Spartan wasted the last seven rounds at the skull-faced xeno. The xeno let out a pissed off roar and charged at the Spartan, shaking the ground beneath it's feet. Danny quickly dodged to his right and the xeno rammed its head into the unconscious elite, purple blood splattered everywhere and the elite's armor flew off like it was paper. The right leg of the elite dropped next to Danny's face and he noticed that the energy sword was attached to it. He said a quick thank you to The Lord and pulled the sword off the leg.

He quickly climbed to the feet and activated the energy sword. The light of the sword also lit up the room. For one, he had a much better look at this alien. It's teeth were long and razor sharp and the tail had whipped behind the beast's body. "Come at me you ugly son of a bitch!"

The skull-faced bug leaned its massive body towards the Spartan and roared out in terror. Suddenly, Danny heard hisses and shrieks coming from behind him. He whirled around and he noticed that he was surrounded by ten other smaller Xenomorphs of different castes. Two of them being Sangheili Xenomorphs.

"Shit.." The skull-faced xeno took a step back as if it was letting the lesser members of his hive to do the work for him. The ten Xenomorphs started closing in on him slowly and Danny waved the energy sword around at them. Then suddenly, a smaller Xenomorph lounged at him with its claws out. Danny's instincts took over and he swung the sword at the xeno's neck, severing its head clean off.

The other nine xenos glanced at the motionless body of their fallen brethren and shrieked in anger. One of the Sangheili xenos lounged at the Spartan and Danny braced himself for impact, but just within inches, the xeno recoiled to his left and blue plasma rounds hit the six of the other Xenomorphs. Danny quickly took advantage of the confusion and sliced down the other lesser xenos swiftly. The heat of the sword sliced through the exoskeleton as if it were butter.

He looked at where the plasma rounds came from, and he could faintly see a cloaked figure running at the skull-faced xeno. Before the the xeno could react, it was pushed back to the wall.

The cloaking device was deactivated from the figure and it became visible. Danny recognized that it was the same alien humanoid from earlier. The xeno was clearly stronger than the shorter being and it threw the alien off its side next to Danny. Danny stood in front of the humanoid and waited for the xeno to come at him.

He glanced behind him at the creature who got to its feet. It gave Danny a quick nod and focused on the xeno. The behemoth roared in rage and threw out its arms. Danny took a couple steps to his left and the humanoid took a couple steps to its right and pulled out its double-edged glaive.

Danny looked at the humanoid and counted down with his fingers. The creature seemed to catch on and it waited for the countdown. Danny counted to zero and charged at the xeno. The humanoid fired a couple plasma bolts at the xeno, nearly penetrating through the thick exoskeletal layer, and charged at it with Danny.

The skull-faced xeno whipped its tail at Danny, but the Spartan just dodged the attack, then grabbed onto it and used its momentum to launch himself at the beast with his sword out in front of him. He stuck the xeno with his energy based sword in the chest area, making the xeno scream wildly in pain. Danny was launched back several feet leaving the sword in the xeno's chest. The humanoid threw his glaive like a javelin at the behemoth and it pierced right through its exoskeleton. The beast roared out once more in agony and fell on its back.

Danny got to his feet and looked over at the masked alien. The masked humanoid ejected its wristblades and thrusted down at the skull-faced xeno, making all sorts of sickening cuts and slices. The alien withdrew his blades, bent down, placed its left leg on xeno's chest and pulled the skull-faced xeno's head clean off. It studied its new trophy and gave out a deafening victory roar.

The Spartan crouched down at the body of the marine and pulled off one of his dog tags from around his neck. He patted the marine's shoulder and got up to his feet. Danny took a step forward and stepped on something metallic which made him look down. It was a spear engraved into the Sangheili xeno's chest. He assumed it belonged to the humanoid so he pulled it out of the xeno's carapace, then noticed that it didn't take any damage from the acid. He shook the spear to get the acid off and he began walking up to the humanoid. As he approached the alien, he noted all the small skulls he had decorated around his light armor. The alien attached the head to the skull-faced Xenomorph on its back, pretty much as if it was a hunter.

Danny decided that 'hunter' fitted this humanoid's description best. The Spartan carefully walked up next to the hunter and cleared his throat. "Hey."

The hunter looked over to the super soldier then at his spear. He looked back up at the human and made an eery clicking noise. Danny lifted it up and offered it back to the hunter.

"This is uh, yours," he said sheepishly. The hunter took a hold of his spear and pressed a button that immediately made it condense to a more concealed posture. It then placed it on its back then looked at Danny. The Spartan gave it a respectful nod.

The hunter leaned down next to its calf and pulled out a very decorated and frightening looking blade then handed it to Danny firmly. The Spartan looked down at the foreign blade, then back up at the hunter. The hunter gave him a slight nod and opened up his wrist device. He pressed a couple random buttons and an acknowledging beep sounded. The hunter got the Spartan's attention, then pointed at his wrist and then extended all of its alien fingers. Danny caught on.

"It's a bomb?"

The hunter shrugged, detached his wrist device and chucked it in the middle of the room. Suddenly a countdown sound came from it and the hunter pulled the Spartan from the room. The two super beings sprinted through the darkness of the caves. To much of his surprise, there were no xenos on the way, but he did track some movement behind him. Never mind, a lot of movement behind them.

Finally they came up on a forty degree incline going straight up. Danny could see the blue fire at the very top and nearly ran faster than the hunter. He was built for this kind of running. They were getting closer and closer to the exit. Finally they made it to the top and the hunter full out pushed the Spartan down on the ground.

Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake and a deafening sonic boom that came from the hole. If not for Danny's helmet, his eardrums would of popped. As more of it develops, the ground started to shake drastically and the hunter pulled the Spartan to its feet. The two beings ran through the Covenant corridors of the downed cruiser and the ground below them started to fall beneath them.

Danny spotted a place just out of one of the blown holes in cruiser still intact. The ground suddenly caved in deeper and both species stumbled down onto their knees. Danny got up before the hunter and pulled the alien to its feet. They were going to go airborne if they didn't make the exit. The two species finally came up to the exit and they both leaped for the intact ground.


	5. The Unveiling

Danny opened his eyes and realized that he landed on flat ground. He made it. He glanced to his right and the hunter was standing there scanning the wreckage. The Spartan got up to his feet and looked out at the result of the explosion. Everything fell nearly a mile down into the ground which made the Spartan think. That cave must of been enormous.

Suddenly, Spartan Miller's com popped up in his HUD. "_Spartan O'Neil, you're alive! What happened?_" The Spartan smirked slightly and pressed his coms button.

"It's long long story. I'll tell you bout it later."

"_Okay. I have a heat signature of a contact right next to you-_"

"Oh yeah, this thing saved my life and got me out of there. Not to mention also blowing up the entire hive."

There was silence in the coms. Danny glanced at hunter who was still studying the crater. "_You just say that guy blew up the cruiser?_" Sarah Palmer's voice came up on the coms with a pissed off voice.

"Yes ma'am," Danny formally replied.

"_Stand your ground right there. I'm sending a pelican with the rest of your team there._"

"Acknowledged commander." The tone to her voice made the Spartan wonder what they were not telling him. Surely his team will tell him when they get here.

Suddenly he heard shrieks coming out of the crater coming closer. The hunter made a startled clicking noise and activated his shoulder cannon. Danny drew his alien combat knife and prepared for a xeno assault. The first thing he hears is the pelican flying behind him then suddenly a xeno climbed over the ledge. Immediately, the hunter fired a plasma bolt at xeno dismembering its entire body. Another xeno popped out of the hole and the hunter shot at that one. Suddenly, a swarm of xenos climbed out of the hole and the two beings decided it was time run in the other direction.

Danny waved at the incoming pelican and the pelican dropped down around fifty yards away. The back end opened and there was Jon manning a mounted machine gun. The other two Spartans held on to support and extended a hand out to Danny and the hunter. Jon opened fire and waves of bullets zipped past the two species. Danny took a glance back and there were countless amounts of xenos on the ground crawling in their direction.

The Spartan finally made it to the pelican and jumped onboard. He glanced back at the ground and noticed that the hunter was gone.

"What happened to the thing?" Danny shouted at Jon.

"Dunno, he just disappeared." Jon continued firing rounds at the xenos, dropping all the ones on the frontline. But they still kept coming like a plague.

Danny pulled off Jon's shotgun and started picking off xeno after xeno. But still, they rushed at the Spartans.

Eric ran to the back of the pelican and smacked the door. "Pilot, get us the hell outta here!" At this point, xenos were invading into the transporter. Danny dropped the shotgun, pulled out his alien combat knife and started slicing at the incoming xenos. He punctured one in the forehead and kicked it off the pelican. The transporter lifted off out of the xenos' reach and flew off to the UNSC Infinity.

* * *

The pelican finally docked into the bay and the four Spartans piled out of the transport. Jon patted Danny on the shoulder. "I think you owe me a drink, you see all those xenos I killed?"

Danny smirked and pulled off his helmet. "Yeah yeah."

Jon glanced over to Dylan. "Hey, this means you too, bud."

Dylan shook his head and placed his SRS on his back. "Fine, you win."

Danny laughed and looked down. He noticed he was stepping on a pile of slime. He glanced at his metallic boot at the slimy substance and thought about where it came from. He glanced up at the ceiling directly above the pile. There wasn't anything coming from the ceiling, but then he noticed that one of the vents were open wider than usual.

Roland popped up out of the holographic station. "Spartans, good of you to be back with us. Care to join our little ball at the bridge?"

Eric shrugged. "We'll be there. What's the deal?"

"Come to the bridge and I'll spare ya the details." The AI disappeared from the hologram.

Danny looked back up at the vent with a confused expression. Dylan patted him on the back. "What's wrong?"

The taller Spartan looked over to his fellow Spartan with raised eyebrow and shrugged. "Nothing. Still jumpy from earlier."

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, I'm meaning to ask, what happened? I thought you were KIA."

Danny stared into space and remarked the darkness and the skull-faced xeno. "You'll see soon enough. I'll plug in my chip into the computer at the bridge."

Roland popped up on the hologram again. "On the double Spartans. Captain Lasky needs you guys."

The three other Crimson members pushed on to the bridge. Danny glanced back up at the vent with a skeptical expression. He shook his head in disbelief and began walking to the bridge behind his fellow Spartans.

* * *

"You let the thing get _away_?" Commander Palmer shouted in Danny's face. The taller Spartan didn't tense or twitch, just stayed in formation next to his fellow Crimson members. The woman glared knives into the taller man's eyes, but Danny didn't change the expression on his face.

"No, he just sorta disappeared, Commander." The superior Spartan shook her head and leaned down on the briefing hologram. The tall Spartan looked over to Captain Lasky who was pondering at the image of the hunter on the hologram. "Permission to speak freely Captain."

Lasky glanced over. "Granted, what's on you mind O'Neil?"

Danny eased out of formation a walked up to the briefing hologram studying the picture. "First off, what is it?"

Lasky looked over to Roland's hologram. "Tell him, Roland."

The AI popped out of the hologram and rested his virtual hands on his thighs. "Well, I managed to pick up some incredibly old records on the thing. They are dated back to the twentieth and twenty-first century." Danny raised both eyebrows. "In this record in the year 1987, supposedly there was a 'hunter' in the Guatemalan rainforest hunting a six man special forces team along with a CIA agent. Only one of them made it out of there alive. It says here that there was some kind of huge explosion that wiped out half of the forest." He switched the record. "Another record I managed to find, even though it was heavily encrypted, took place in the year 1997 in the old city of Los Angles. There was one that was being studied by a very secret CIA group of agents. However, most of them were killed. Wow, want to know what they called them?" Roland formed a small smile.

The captain rolled his eyes. "Yes, Roland."

Roland cleared his throat. "Hang on, this is hard to pronounce. They are called Yautja. From what I've gathered, they are a race based on honor, kinda like the Sangheili, but their culture is solely based around hunting. They are known to hunt their prey down one by one."

"So their like predators?" Dylan suddenly concluded as he crossed his arms.

Roland shrugged. "Yeah precisely. More like super predators." The AI changed the archive again. "This one is interesting. This took place in the year 2011. An IDF sharpshooter and two highly trained ex-black op mercenaries were found in Arizona after being confirmed MIA. The woman was terminally injured and died shortly after her arrival back on Earth. The two mercenaries were taken to a secret military camp deep in Nevada and were interrogated by the CIA. They both told of two kinds of these super predators. The first type, the kind you saw," he pointed at Danny, "is the smaller type, but more intelligent. The other is much bigger and supposely has a very bad temper. Anyways, that's all the intel we have on the Yautja."

Suddenly the AI shifted drastically on the holographic stage. "Oh God. Captain Lasky, you have to look at this!" A security camera popped up on the holographic monitor. Lasky's eyes immediately widened at the sight of flickering lights and strange secretions on the walls.

"Roland, run a diagnostic. What's going on in there?" The captain ordered the arctic dressed AI. The AI pulled up a virtual diagnostic of the entire ship and zeroed in on a section of the ship near the engine rooms.

"Sir, I'm getting reports of xenos inside the ship attack personal. I've sent marines to dispatch the bugs." Roland snapped his fingers. He paused and looked at the monitor, then snapped his fingers again, and again. "Why isn't this _working_?"

"What's the problem?" Lasky skeptically asked the AI.

"The turrets aren't going online in the vicinity! It's like they're jammed by something."

"Then let's see what's jamming it then," the captain sarcastically stated to the AI.

"Right. I got this." Roland zoomed in on the area and scanned for a camera. Roland cocked a virtual eyebrow from the fact that there were no cameras or virtual hologram stations operational inside the section where the reports came from. "Captain, this is the only one that has a clear picture." The surveillance camera showed an open blast door with broken lights and sparks crackling.

Captain Lasky exhaled quickly and glanced over to Crimson team then back at Roland. "Close all blast doors and vents. Make sure nothing in there gets out. Keep them trapped." He focused on Crimson. "You four. Gear up. We have take out those bastards before things go to hell." He looked over to Palmer. "That means you too Sarah. We need all the help we can get."

Danny rolled his eyes and put on his helmet. Eric put on his helmet and pressed a button on his virtual wrist pad. "Roland, send me the coordinates."

"Already did. I'll brief you guys when you fellas are ready."

"Okay," Palmer exhaled and put on her Scout helmet, "Crimson. On me, we're going on a little bug hunt."

* * *

**Oh no, one of the aliens got into the ship! I wonder whats going to happen! I hope you guys liked the chapter, please review!**


	6. Sector 107

**Chapter 6 is here! Gee I wonder whats going to happen to Infinity. Good thing Roland can see everything going on, well usually. He didn't see the infestation at first because his full attention was directed in the bridge, so that explains why the infestation took place. Anyways, we'll see what happens. If you have questions after the chapter, please feel free to post them in the reviews or PM me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from 343 Industries, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, or anything from the Alien or Predator Universe. I only own my 4 characters of Crimson team.**

* * *

Spartan Sarah Palmer lead the group of Spartans into the nearest armory. She turned around to face them and gave out an exhale. "Alright ladies, get yourself situated. Just keep yourself from throwing too many grenades or shooting any rockets. You don't want to blow up a part of the ship do ya?" The three Spartan IV's rolled their eyes and got themselves situated with assault rifles and handguns. Spartan E-015 pulled a SAW off a rack and loaded up around his belt with six clips. He then grabbed a M45D shotgun and also loaded shells into his belt.

The Commander just loaded several clips around her belt for her two handguns and glanced over to the rest of Crimson team. "You fellas ready yet?"

Dylan had a question. "What sector of the ship is the infestation?"

The Commander raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Does it matter?" She hissed at the sharpshooter.

Dylan shrugged and looked down at many of the weapons. "Thought I'd ask. I was wondering if a sticky detonator was relevant to this situation."

Palmer rolled her eyes and decided he was going to find out either way. "Sector 107. In one of the cargo bays. Does that answer your question, Spartan?" The section was fairly distant from the closest airlock but the Spartan decided that he'd give the clean up crew a less of big clean up job.

"Yes ma'am." Either way, he realized that those four sectors were rather large sections of the rear side of the ship. He wondered how many people lost their lives to these bugs. The sharpshooter grabbed a BR85 and loaded several clips around his belt. "Right. I'm ready."

"Aye," Danny replied. The Spartan noted the type of armor these bugs had and decided that a SAW would work best. Jon still went with his trusty shotgun.

"Alright party's over," Palmer announced. "Let's head over to the transit system."

* * *

Captain Lasky kept studying the surveillance camera that showed a portion of sector 107. The only thing that crossed his mind was the infestation spreading through the city sized ship. If that happened, bye bye Infinity and the UNSC's most expensive ship ever manufactured.

"Sir," Roland popped out of the holographic monitor. "Commander Palmer and Crimson are on route to Sectors 107, ETA fifty-three minutes. I sealed off all vents and blast doors. Nothing could get out unless I say so."

The Captain gave out a relieved exhale. "Good job Roland."

The AI brought a hand to his ear. "Actually, I have a message from Spartan Fireteam Majestic."

"Give them a clear channel." Roland nodded his head and a com to Spartan DeMarco and Thorne popped up. "Spartans, did you find Dr. Halsey?"

DeMarco's com opened up. "_Not exactly. I don't think she's here. But sir, we have another situation at large here. And what I mean by 'here' I mean the planet._"

The Captain glanced over to the AI with a puzzled look. Roland surprisingly did the same. "What's the situation, Spartans?"

"_Well, Grant managed to go through one of the archives from this ship and I guess there's another alien ship here on this planet. Here, Grant, you tell him, I don't know what you said._" Roland smirked and crossed his arms. The captain's expression didn't change.

Grant patched in through her com. "_Captain Lasky, I have some intel you might want. It seems that there is another ship on this planet, but it's not Forerunner. I'm looking at a picture of it right now, can you see it?_"

Roland snapped his fingers and Grant's HUD popped up on the holographic monitor. Both Lasky and Roland studied the ship. It was C shaped, dark colored architecture, and a smoother tone to the engineering. It didn't look like it had any weapons on the ship at all. It was hard to tell what side of the ship was the front. The ship indeed was definitely not Forerunner.

"We see it," the captain stated to Grant. He glanced over to Roland and gave him a skeptical stare. "Does it say where the ship is located?"

"_Yes, I'll send you the coordinates._"

"Thanks Spartan. Was there anything else in those archives?"

"_Actually, recently there have been reports on Covenant counter-offensive teams on the ground discovering mutilated guards. Actually they were decapitated with spine out of their backs. Weird.._"

Lasky rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath. What in the world was going on? "Is that all?"

"_That's about it._"

"Alright, get yourself out of that cruiser and fall back to a safe zone. Just give us the word and we'll come get you guys."

Spartan Thorne's com activated. "_But sir, what about Dr. Halsey?_"

"We will find another way to acquire her. I'm sorry guys, but the situation changed up here in Infinity. Just get out of there and radio in when you guys are in a safe zone. Am I clear Spartans?"

"_Yessir._" All coms deactivated to Majestic.

The captain looked over to Roland. "Please tell me you have files on that ship."

Roland scanned through files for quite a while and he came across another explainable piece of info. "Actually, Skip, I think I found something."

"Can you tell me the details?"

The AI rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh. "Must I read everything for you?" The captain smirked faintly and nodded. "Fine. Well I do have a file, but it's very vague. Obviously, ONI has the file in their archives but I managed to pull it out. Anyways, there's a record that was submitted about four hundred-fifty years ago that sort of matched the description of that ship. Captain, are you familiar with the Zeta II Reticuli system?"

Captain Lasky raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Can't say I am."

"Oh, well apparently there were incidents on two of the moons orbiting the gas-giant, Calpamos, in that system. LV-426, also known as Acheron, and LV-223. It looks like the Orbital Naval Intelligence tried their best to make everyone forget about this system. This file is very classified." The virtual man rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath, as if it mattered. "Anyways, the first incident happened on LV-223 when a space vessel, known as Prometheus, went on a expedition ordered by the old Weyland Corporation back in 2091. Considering that they didn't know about slipspace jumps yet," the AI commented in a slightly arrogant tone," they arrived there in 2093. Not long after their arrival, they came across a ship that supposedly matches this one's description. Then they lost contact with Prometheus, but they did manage to get one last transmission from the last survivor of the vessel. The transmission has been lost for ages, but it says here that she told the officials of Weyland that the scientific vessel was destroyed. She said she was still _searching_. Not sure what she meant by that."

"What about the incident on Acheron?" The captain reminded the AI.

"Oh, right. Well, that incident was twenty-nine years later. Weyland bought out the Yutani Corporation, hence Weyland-Yutani. Anyways, they sent the USCSS Nostromo to investigate a strange signal coming from that moon. They gave a description of the ship just like this one. Everything else is highly classified by the Orbital Naval Intelligence and I can't bypass anything else past the information we have right here. I'm surprised we have files about this ship. Anyways, Weyland-Yutani was disbanded two centuries ago. Sorry Captain, that's everything I got." Roland took a deep breath and crossed his arms.

"Not very useful info, but at least we know that Humanity came in contact with the beings from that ship in the past." Lasky began pacing around the the briefing table wondering what to do. The ship's schematic on the hologram showed that it was much smaller than the Infinity and the Covenant battle cruiser. About a tenth the size of the cruiser. He wondered what the beings that built it looked like or if they even still existed, but then again, the Forerunners were considered extinct and they came across the Didact. He shook his head and focused himself on the real problem at hand, Infinity was infested with Xenomorphs.

* * *

Finally, the transit system came to a stop at sector 106, just next to the infested sector 107. The five Spartans piled out the transit transport and they came across a marine next to the blast door that led to 107. "Marine, what's the situation?" Commander Palmer questioned the terrified marine.

"Uh, I'm not sure, one xeno got in and attacked several of us. I managed to close all the blast doors and I'm guessing that Roland closed the vents." He stood there with his Battle Rifle in hand, shivering.

Palmer walked up to the marine. "How many are there?"

"I think just one of them, it was large and had mandibles like the elites."

"So a Sangheili xeno. Shouldn't be too hard I guess," Danny commented.

"Alright let us in. We'll take it out. Crimson, on me," the commander ordered. The marine went up to the switch and opened up the blast door. The first thing that the Spartans see is that the cargo bay was rampaged. Electricity flickered in broken wires and the light from sector 106 lit up a part of the room. The Spartans flipped off their safeties and walked into the bay. Palmer waved the marine to close the blast door and the marine quickly closed it back up. The Spartans flipped on their flashlights and scanned the room. The bay was very quiet with the exception of the crackling electricity. Palmer ordered the Spartans to split up and search for the bug. The team went in different directions.

Danny looked on the walls and noticed claw marks and plenty of blood. He cursed to himself and came across a bunch of crates stacked up. He noticed that one of the loaders was still on. He figured that the man driving it just said screw it and ran out the room, or he was pulled out. Around the next corner he spotted a large pile of slime smeared leading another corner around the crates. He slowly aimed his SAW around the corner and lit up the sight in front of him. What he saw blew his mind. Quickly, he pressed his coms button.

"Guys I found something, get to my position **_ASAP_**!" He took a couple more steps toward the strange sight in front of him, still aiming his LMG at the object.

Instantly, the four other Spartans found him, flashed their lights in front of the Spartan and they immediately stopped in their tracks staring at the object in front of them. "What the hell is that..?" Dylan whispered through his helmet. Palmer slowly walked up next to Danny with both of her Magnums pointed at the object in front of them.

The object had to be twenty-five feet tall. It was covered in slime and had a thick shiny coat that resembled the Xenomorphs' chitin. Danny kept thinking about what it could be. _What the hell could this be? It had to be something the Xenomorph created, but why is it so tall? I remember being in that hive and seeing things like this, just smaller. Much smaller. Wait, if small xenos burst out of chests, how do they get bigger so quickly? Oh shit.. I think I know what this fucking thing is.. But why is it so big? Wait a minute, that means this xeno is becoming something bigger. Oh my God, I see what's happening here.._

"Guys. I know what this is.." He commented without leaving his gaze from the object. "It's like bee hive. You all know that they lay eggs, right? So what lays the eggs? The queen, right? And there can be only one queen at time right? So that means that this thing.. is a cocoon.. for a big fucking bug."


	7. Agony

**Chapter 7 is up! Sorry about the long wait readers. College has been kicking my ass with work but I try to get these chapters in. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Please REVIEW AND RATE!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Halo franchise or AvP franchise.**

* * *

"What're we supposed to do now?" Dylan griped as he gripped his Battle Rifle tighter. The five Spartans all steadily moved back away from the ten foot tall cocoon. Jon decided to pump a shell into his shotgun then took aim. The noise from the pump made the cocoon shake in its place slightly.

"Don't.. Make.. Any.. Sudden.. Noises.." Palmer whispered carefully to the other four Spartans.

"What should we do?" Dylan asked again quietly.

Eric kept his barrel aimed at the cocoon and took a moment to look around for anything useful, however, the entire bay was dark with a few flashes from the broken electric wires. He noticed in his HUD that he had the Promethean Vision module installed and he activated it. A large large red outline created a sonar-like vision showing every object. He spotted a loading Mantis on the other side of the room. At that point, he glanced back over to the cocoon. He took a sharp inhale at the sight before him. Inside the cocoon, there was a massive bug bent over with a very large crown-like cranium.

"Spartans, we are going to have a handful with this bug," he said flatly.

Suddenly, the cocoon shook, making the floor beneath the Spartans' feet. Then two long black arms ripped out from the shell, followed by a echoing shriek.

"Oh shit, Spartans fall back, now!" Palmer shouted at the top of her lungs. The five Spartans darted away from the giant bug emerging from the cocoon. Danny took cover behind a large crate and readied his SAW.

He glanced around the edge of the crate and watched as the behemoth busted its large body out of the cocoon. Its tail pierced out from end and flailed around the air swiftly. Finally, the head lifted up from the cocoon slowly. Danny could hear the bug breathing lowly. He noticed the mandibles around its mouth region. A fucking Sangheili super bug. It turned its gaze towards him and let out a deafening roar, at the same time extending its long arms.

"Fuck this!" Danny turned the corner and opened fire on the giant Xenomorph. The rounds penetrated against its large cranium, but they couldn't get past it's thick armor. Either way, Danny continuously fired rounds at the monster.

At that point, the other four Spartans joined in. Jon pumped shell after shell and walked towards the bug. It raised its arm in defense and took a few steps towards Jon then whipped its long tail at his chest. The force was so great that Jon flung back roughly fifty feet, landing next to the Mantis loader. He laid there motionless with a huge skid mark on the metal.

"This isn't going well!" Dylan commented, still lighting off rounds.

"That armor's thicker than a Hunter's shield, get to cover in one of those crates!" Eric shouted at his fellow Spartans. The four ran to cover inside a large open crate. The large xeno ran after them and rammed its head into the crate, creating a huge dent.

"I feel like the sticky detonator would be very helpful in this situation," Dylan remarked half flatly.

"Not to mention a Spankr," Danny added. He opened fire back on the large bug as if it did anything. The behemoth only screeched a roar that was deafening to the ears, then swung its tail in the air and snapped it inside the crate, slightly scratching against Danny's helmet. Even with the slight scratch, the recoil and force from the whip knocked Danny back several feet, busting a hole right through the other side of the crate.

"Well that's convenient," Dylan remarked as he ran through the hole. "C'mon!" Eric pinned a grenade and threw it out near the queen, then he and Palmer ran through the hole. Dylan pulled Danny to his feet and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Should I say thank you?"

Before Danny could reply, the queen bashed its head against the crate, slightly pushing it towards the Spartans.

"Cut the chatter Spartans! We need to figure out a way to flush that giant cockroach down the toilet!" Palmer yelled.

"I know a way but it's going to be a close call," Eric replied. The three other Spartans got into a defensive position and listened in to Eric's plan. "You see that Mantis over there?" He pointed at the loader. The Spartans glanced to it, still aware of the behemoth trying to get through the crate. Eric then pointed to the left of their position, a small side path that lead around the sector, guarded by metal scaffolds with multiple large openings.

"I'm going to take that path around to get to the Mantis. I need someone to keep that xeno occupied, alright?"

Palmer nodded and looked at the other two. "You heard the man Spartans, piss off that bug!"

The queen repeatedly banged its head against the crate, screeching and scratching. It banged its tail at the small opening in the crate.

"It's already pissed off!" Danny griped.

The three Spartans opened fire back on the queen as Eric started making a run for it. Despite being shot by plenty of higher caliber rounds, the queen focused itself on Eric and went after him.

"Damn it! Get its attention back!" Palmer yelled.

Eric made around a bend but then suddenly was lifted up and pinned into the wall, not to mention accidentally dropping his LMG. The queen's face was inches away from his visor, drooling clear goo all over his suit. He tried reaching for his sidearm but the queen blocked his attempt. The tail flailed around behind the monster and took aim at the Spartan. Eric couldn't do anything in defense but only see his certain demise.

"You know, you are one ugly mother fucker!"

The queen gave a deafening roar and tightened its grip on the Spartan. The tail snapped at Eric's head, but he quickly dodged it within centimeters.

Suddenly the queen dropped the Spartan on ground after a loud a bang. It shrieked out in pain and turned its whole body around. Eric looked up and saw Jon without his helmet on several feet away from the behemoth wielding his shotgun. The queen's back was bleeding acid from the impact.

"You get away from my CO you bitch!"

The bug roared and charged at the Spartan. It took a grab at the Spartan but he rolled to his side and fired another shell at its chest at point blank range. Nothing in the galaxy with an organic defense mechanism could withstand that impact. The queen fell to its side, roaring then quickly got to its feet.

Eric took advantage of the time given to him and resumed rushing back to the Mantis loader. Finally he made it and he started climbing up into.

Jon started getting run down due to the fact that he had a few broken ribs from the earlier impact. The queen snapped its tail at him, but he just dodged it. Suddenly he was grabbed by both of the queen's hands and he was lifted up into the air. Without giving the chance to act, the queen impaled its tail clean through his chest. Blood spurted on the wall behind him.

"Jon!" Danny yelled from the crate. He tried to run after the beast but was grabbed by Commander Palmer.

Jon glared at the queen's face and blood started seeping out of his mouth. The queen effortlessly lifted up the Spartan towards its face. This was it and Jon knew it. "What are you waiting for, bitch?"

The queen slowly opened up its mandibles revealing its inner jaw. The inner jaw slowly opened and closed. Jon reached an arm behind his back and grabbed his last plasma grenade. He pressed the button and glared at the queen's face again who tilted its head at the sight of the blue lit grenade.

"I ain't going out unless you're dead!" He quickly stuck the grenade on the bug's left mandible. The queen whipped its tail around, sending Jon flying towards the crate the other three Spartans were holding up. The grenade exploded, severing off both mandibles on the left side of its face. The queen roared in agony, putting a hand up to its face. Acid dripped from the hole in its face.

Suddenly the queen was tackled to the ground. It was pummeled by one of the Mantis loaders. Eric piloted the walker and controlled the arms into a offensive position. The queen scurried to its feet and stumbled around in front of the Mantis, trying to get its footing. Without warning, Eric plowed the queen back to the ground.

The queen struggled to get up to its feet but was stopped by the Mantis' metal foot. The queen whipped its tail and smacked it into the side of Mantis with as much force as it could give, but the Mantis took little recoil from the hit. Eric lifted up the foot high and plummeted down onto the queen's rib cage. The force was so great that the metal foot caved in the exoskeletal torso.

Acid sprayed about landing on its surroundings. Some landed onto the Mantis' lower half, melting right through the metal. There was no shield module installed on it because it was only a loading machine rather than its combat counterpart. The queen struggled, trying to regain its strength but the wound was too severe. Finally the acid melted down the metal on the Mantis, causing it to lose its footing. The heavy loader fell down right onto queen pinning it in submission.

Eric ejected out of the piloting seat of the loader and landed next to the queen. The queen laid there in complete pain and stared down the Spartan. The only thing it could do at this point was hiss at him, even though the hiss was weak. Eric studied the blown off section on the queen's face. The left side of its face was completely torn apart from the plasma grenade.

Eric drew his M6H and pointed at the queen's forehead. He stared down at the queen for a long pause, then he continuously pulled the trigger, with all eight penetrating at the queen's head. Even though the exoskeleton had thick armor, the lead made an a good effort to get past the shell. The queen's head dropped down to the hard metal floor with acid leaking out of its head.

Eric quickly glanced back at the other Spartans. Jon was laying on the ground coughing up blood. Immediately, he rushed over to his fellow Spartan.

"This is Spartan Team Crimson in Sector 107, the target is neutralized but there's a Spartan down! Any personal near this sector hurry to our position ASAP!" Eric turned off the com and he immediately received several responses from nearby marines.

He knelt down next to Jon and scanned his wound. His wound was too severe at this point, he was losing too much blood. "Spartan, don't you die on me!"

"Jon, you're gonna be alright!" Danny declared as he tried dressing his wound. Jon gasped for air and held onto Palmer's hand.

Palmer clicked her com. "Damn it! Someone get in here now! Spartan down! Condition Red!"

Suddenly his clenched eased off and Palmer quickly looked down at him. He was motionless and his eyes held no sense of life. Lifeless.

Danny quickly got to his feet. "Fuck!" He shouted at top of his lungs. He pulled off his helmet and chucked it at a couple of small crates. His arms lifted up and rested behind his head. He began pacing around the bay not knowing how to react to this.

Eric shook his head. Another good soldier lost under his command. The talley was high enough as it is and certainly did not need another addition, but it is what it is. Spartan Jon Satoran, J-160, was just another unnecessary casualty in a stupid incident with a giant bug. It was Reach all over again. He had the chance to save his life, but he just couldn't.

A corpsman accompanied by several marines rushed into the bay towards the Spartans. The doctor hurried down to the fallen Spartan and put a finger on his neck. No pulse. He took a better look into the impaled section of his body. His lifeless heart was visible and had a slice of it cut off. The doctor shook his head and looked at the other Spartans with a sorrowful expression. There was no hope for him. He was gone.

"C'mon. We need to get him in a better place. He deserves a service," Eric said with low monotone. Jon deserved a service.

* * *

"_Spartan E-015 to Captain Lasky._" Eric's IF tag popped up on the center hologram. Lasky turned on his com relay to the Spartan.

"Go ahead Eric, what's your status? Are all targets neutralized in sector 107?" Roland popped up out of the hologram with a serious look on face. The Captain glanced at the AI but thought nothing of it.

"_Sir_," the Spartan exhaled through the mic. "_There was only one target, but it was exceptionally larger than the other ones. Either way, it's been taken care of. However,_" the Spartan exhaled again, _"there was a casualty, sir._"

Lasky took a deep breath and looked at Roland who looked down. "Who?" The Captain replied trying to sound sympathetic.

"_Satoran is down._" Lasky let out a painful exhale. Jon was the one soldier that saved Infinity from the gravity pull during the Second Battle of Requiem. He was a very respectful Spartan and always got things done during the ops. "_He was impaled through the chest by a large Xenomorph. The wound severed a part of his heart and lungs. There wasn't anything we could do for him._"

Lasky looked back at Roland. "I'm sorry Spartan. He was a good soldier."

"_And a good man,_" Eric added.

Lasky nodded and paused for a second, giving a moment of silence. "Alright, get your team back to the barracks. Get some rest. You all deserved it. I'll make sure Jon gets an honorary service."

"_Aye sir. Crimson out._"

Lasky looked back at Roland. "Roland, get the morticians to prepare Jon for a service."

"Already done, sir. It's scheduled for tomorrow at 0800."

"Thanks Roland."

The AI cleared his throat. "This may be the right time to ask this sir, but," he paused.

Lasky lifted his hand. "Just say it. It's alright."

"Who is going to replace him in Crimson?"

Lasky was afraid of hearing that question, but the AI had the right to ask. Crimson did need another member. They would have to transfer a Spartan from a different Fireteam that had five Spartans or more in it. The only Fireteam that was capable of transferring was Fireteam Kodiak. Kodiak's major feat was that they successfully defended the ship's armory from waves of Covenant and Promethean forces.

Lasky looked over to Roland. "Are there any Spartans from Kodiak that would be capable of transferring?"

"Well sir, they are all capable. But if it was my choice, I'd transfer Spartan Cathleen Perry." Roland pulled up the Spartan's file and IF tag. She had blonde hair that only reached her neck, just a hair away from the standards. She had fierce blue eyes and a Germanic figure in her appearance. "Sir, are you familiar with her file?"

"Not exactly, but I know what she did at the armory. She works well in a team."

"Quite well actually," Roland remarked. "Should I transfer her to Crimson?"

Lasky nodded after thinking about it. "Yeah, she can have a day to get her things ready, then send her to Crimson's barracks."

"Will do." The AI looked closer at the captain. "Sir, you need rest. You've been awake for forty-seven hours, twenty minutes, thirty-eight seconds." The captain nodded and brought up a hand.

"Alright alright, I will."

"Okay. I'll keep an eye on Infinity as I always do." The AI saluted the captain.

"Thanks Roland," Lasky replied back. He nodded to the AI and started walking back to his quarters.

* * *

The three remaining members of Crimson stood in front of the other Spartan teams in formation, only... There was an empty space in between them. Jon was gone. And this was his funeral.

Captain Lasky spoke in front of the Spartan teams detailing Jon's incredible feats on Requiem. One that always fulfilled his orders. One that always didn't ask questions. One that saved Infinity singlehandedly.

Hearing all of this wasn't easy for each member of Crimson. Jon was a good soldier and a good man that deserved to life longer.

As Tom Lasky concluded his speech, marine pallbearers lifted Jon's casket up and placed it in a tomb amongst many other fallen soldiers. Every Spartan in the room saluted him as he entered his final resting place.

The attendants all began to exit the tombs back to their stations but Crimson stood in front of the grave. Each of them kept a straight serious face but all three had that heavy feeling in their chests. They didn't just lose their teammate, they lost their friend.

Lasky noticed the team still standing in front of the grave and decided it would be better to say something to them in person. He walked up next to Dylan and looked at the grave.

He took a deep breath and bowed his head. "Jon was a good soldier and a good man."

"Indeed," Eric replied flatly.

Both Dylan and Danny nodded quietly.

Captain Lasky glanced at the three Spartans and sighed. He knew exactly what they were feeling and they were taking it way better than how he took his grief after the events on Circinius IV. Visions of Chyler Silva passed through his head. He was devastated with her death.

When he glanced over to the Spartans, he realized that now was definitely not the best time to inform them of their new replacement. Replacement. The word made him sick.

"I'll leave you guys alone. Get some rest and report to me tomorrow."

"Aye," Eric replied.

Lasky left the gravesite to the three Spartans. None of the three shifted their stance or turned their gaze away from the grave. Jon was a loss to the entire ship. One of the best in the entire Spartan IV program. Either way it was useless to wish him back. What happened, happened. Nothing could change it.


End file.
